19 July 2019
Give us a Floater
The day starts out with the Irregulars at the docks of Gracklestugh, getting themselves ready for the journey to the city of the deep gnomes. Before departure the folding boat needs a christening nd be trained the commands to deploy and fold back up.
Keeping the warning of Errde in mind that the boat will listen to any one we decide that the we will use languages that would be uncommon in the Underdark and use both Bree's halfling and Ezri's druidic. Even with these languages we thought of words uncommon to be spoken in regular conversation.
The command given that will deploy the boat will be "Give us a floater, [boat]!" in halfling. Whilst the collapsing spell is "Pucker up, [boat]! I have to admit that I had to think hard on what that would be in druidic, most of the language is focused on nature and it's doings, however bodily functions are not commonly described. Both Bree and I spend some time to teach the rest the words, albeit phonetically, so they can command the boat as necessary. Except Caius, who has put in a bit too much effort in showing off at the inn last night, as bards do *sigh*, and lost his voice. Bree and I will teach him later.
We deploy our boat and it's presented to us as a small sailboat, I think I recall one of the fishermen in the taverns of Waterdeep to call this a cat boat. It's a little larger than our previous vessel and it actually has a sail. Which will make our travelling a little more comfortable -Not that I mind the workout of rowing, need to keep in shape mind you!- However the winds are not kind to us to day and the sail would be useless, so we head out with Autun at the oars and Shuushar taking his familiar role as guide at the rudder. I take it easy for now, still a little exhausted and even a bit sore after my goodbye with that Drow seamstress.
Meanwhile I see Bree with a book, I believe it's the book of spells we got from Nerrick's chest. Whilst I see Kais performing some sort of spell. Out of the dark suddenly a bat comes flying towards us. I heare some flapping and see the shadow circle around the boat a couple of times before it settles itself hanging upside down from the boom.
After a couple fo hours it's time to relieve Autun of his rowing duty. I make Caius take one oar, while taking the other myself and start rowing. Rumpadump then grabs Caius's drum and starts drumming something that has to be a rhythm, jumping up and down in order to hit the skin hard enough. Cute as the little guy me be, his sense of timing is off even more than that the of the bard who is silently rowing by my side. Autun helps by clapping and giving both Rumpadump and us some useful guidance.
The day and night go by uneventful. It's promising to be another long journey on the dark lake. I'm wondering how big is this Underdark anyway? It's way too big to be a regular cave and this Darklake is more like a dark ocean.
The second day Kais sends out his bat. He explained that the spell he performed yesterday is a ritual called Find Familiar and conjures a spirit that takes the shape of an animal. Which explains the bat lounging on our boom. Kais tells the bat will obey his commands and the will also be able to see through his eyes and hear through his ears. I reckon it's somewhat similar to my wildshaping abilities where I gain all the senses of the animal I turn into. Though Kais just connects telepathically with the bat, his own body will still be his own Elven self. After a little while Kais and his bat tells us that the waters are clear for as far as the bat could fly.
At the back of the boat Bree is starting to look more and more distressed. Suddenly she starts speaking in tongues. Audibly none of the Irregulars is able to understand any of what she says, but Bree is panicking more by the second. Through Rumpadump it becomes clear that she is screaming for help and it requires all of Autun's strength to hold her down and calm her. In the process Autun notices that Bree's shoulder that has been burnt by the angry dragon back in Gracklestugh now has scales instead of skin
When Autun finally has calmed Bree down enough that she regains her composure she starts telling us what is going on. Apparently her patron was rather unhappy about us upsetting a dragon eventually resulting in his demise and decided to punish Bree for her part in this. Her patron turned Bree in part halfling part dragonkind sorcerer. I wonder, would that make her a quarterling then?
"I don't need any of this any more!" shouts Bree as she starts doffing her armour and undressing herself. It shows that not only her shoulder but about half her body is covered with dragon scales. I also note that she is wearing some pretty underthings that look suspiciously like what Urmedara was wearing during our last night in Gracklestugh (well at least she started the evening wearing those things...).
"Hey, did you steal that from my girlfriend!?" I call her out. Kais intervenes and says that Bree probably bought herself some nice things in the market. Jimjar again is puzzled and mutters something about 'girlfriends doing girlthings'. He clearly has no clue about love and a girl's needs.
Meanwhile Bree has covered up and it's suggested that I put my skills to use making some leather armour for Rumpadump, giving the little Myconid a little more protection from the dangers we're bound to encounter. It'll also give me something to do, Shuushar reckons that it will take us about three ten-days to get to the city of the Deep Gnomes.
As night falls we set up watches and get ourselves as comfortable as we can for the night. When I wake up I notice that the sail has been deployed. Bree tells that she woke up Shuushar to help with that Earlier in the night, as the wind picked up. I spend some more time fitting Rumpadump his armour while Autun tries his luck at fishing. But the only thing he catches is some seaweeds, or more like lake weeds actually, that Shuushar calls dazbood weeds.
On it's scouting flight Kais' bat, and Kais with it, sees a boat not far from our own. Kais tells us that this boat is likely to be a bit larger than ours and has somwhere between 4-10 creatures in it that are more or less average sized. Bats are apparently no good at math, or denomination of species. I have bad feeling about this. We turn the boat in the direction of the other vessel and make haste Autun takes the oars, Kais uses Mage Hand giving the boat an extra push.
"You know what is about a foot long and sounds like a sneeze?!" Rumpadump suddenly shouts. "A SHOE!!" Shh! I can't help but laugh, so do the others, even as it is the corniest joke ever. Even the drunken sailors in the worst bars of Waterdeep tell better jokes. Even though it takes us all of our self discipline to regain our composure. As soon as we are able to stop laughing I hear the typical swooooosh followed by a twoingngngng of an arrow hitting our boat, by the looks of it, it is Drow. I've got a bad feeling about this..
Having hostiles coming closer we act fast. Bree casts a spell enabling all of us to walk on water. I touch Autun to give him darkvision, wearing the darkvision goggles myself. Leaving Rumpadum, Shuushar and Caius in the boat we set foot on water and make our way towards the other boat.
I'm not having any of this and start the fight by casting a Lightning Bolt straight at the port side of the ship, where I see three Drow holding crossbows at the ready. I see the bright lights shooting from my fingertips. Speeding towards the boat with a roaring thunder, that even on this vast open space seems to echo. The bolt hits and passes unhindered through the hostiles on the port side. In the last bits of light I see three clouds of ashes slowly swirling towards the deck. Right before my feet I hear a faint splash of something hitting the water. I'm sure it's another arrow from that archer.
Bree seems to be of the same mind as I am, as I see her performing a spell and instantaneously a big ball of fire appears above the remaining two Drow, setting the sails alight and killing the last crossbowman. The one with the longbow still remains standing, not looking harmed by the fire. Autun is able to knock and loose two arrows from his longbow. The first one misses, but the second one does find it's target. But still the archer remains standing up. It takes two more arrows from Kais and Jimjar to visibly hurt him, but still he remains standing upright.
I want to make this fight as short as possible and decide to cook the guy. I cast Heat Metal and see his armour starting to glow. Even without the goggles I see the breastplate turning dark yellow first, turning to the colour of cherries and ending up bright red within seconds. Then the Drow jumps overboard, resulting in a big cloud of steam coming from the water with the loudest hiss I ever heard steel make in a quench. I sigh and relax, if being roasted, steamed and boiled didn't kill this guy then surely he would drown in the Dark Lake, being weighed down by all his armour.
But then, a figure rises from the water and keeps rising until it is about 20 feet in the air. This guy ain't dead, oh man I hate all this magical shit where you can't even trust someone to be dead and stay dead. Immediately I see Autun loose two arrows at him. In his haste, and probably because he is surprised as I am, only one arrow lands on target. From my other side I see a blast of energy originating from Bree, she must have cast an Eldritch Blast. Both bolts hit and I hear a horrendous sound of bones breaking and tearing through flesh and skin. I see the Drow turning inside out and turning undead. He has turned as far from being a living Drow as possible. Kais and Jimjar shoot another couple of arrows. It's Jimjar's final arrow that does him in. I see one arrow hitting straight between the eyes, pushing the now undead head against the mast. Closely followed by a second arrow splitting both the first arrow from knock till tip and the skull in two, spilling the zombie's brains all over the place. Finally he is really dead.
Getting closer to the boat Bree shapes some water to put out the fires. Kais searches the boat for loot, whilst Autun inspects the undead body. Upon closer inspection he determines that the being is not a litch as he first thought when it turned inside out. Ezri goes back to get the Irregulars boat before it drifts to far off. In the boat the group find a length of rope with a grappling hook attached. A couple of vials of poison potions for dipping arrowheads in. A golden ring that bears the insignia same house as Ilvara, the Drow priestess that kept the group captured in Velkynvelve. Then there are some sundries in coin, crossbow bolts and arrows.
As I return with our boat, rowing it together with Caius, to the Drow vessel I see that they are finishing up looting and inspection. Kais says that he believes we are hunted and that these Drow where after us. So we decide to leave no trace of this fight for other to find. After getting everything of interest in our own boat we scuttle the enemy vessel and dispatch it to the bottom of the Darklake.
"Ezri," Autun motions me, "here, I found this amongst the belongings of the Drow, I think you will appreciate it." He hands me a necklace, made of fine silver and adorned with silver spider fangs. "Awww Autun. I love it!" I cannot suppress a little squeak of joy as I take the necklace from the big guys hand and put it around my neck. I've been missing my torque ever since we were taken capture and put in that Velkynvelve cell, without it I always feel a little naked.
The Irregulars head out again in the direction indicated by Shuushar. When the day reaches it's close the group encounters a sandbank sticking up from the waters. In the middle of it there is a big pile of rubble. More or less arranged in a low U-shaped wall. The Irregulars decide to go and inspect what is there...
Next installement will hopefully follow tomorrow. Stay tuned!
Inventory
Gained
- Myconid leather armor (Rumpadump)
Lost
- Halfling leather armor (Bree)
- 2 magic +1/+1 arrows (Autun)
Party inventory
Prior: 5 July 2019, All: Play_Sessions, Next: 16 August 2019